Microsoft announced today that it will combine the launch of Silverlight 4 with the launch of Visual Studio 2010. Under the auspices of Microsoft and DevConnections both Visual Studio 2010 and Silverlight 4 will be celebrated at the premiere launch event at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas April 12-14. Visual Studio and Silverlight keynotes will be delivered by industry legends Bob Muglia, president of the Server and Tools Business (STB) at Microsoft, and Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president, .NET developer platform. Plus there will be three days of sessions by the best speakers in the industry on the latest and greatest in Visual Studio 2010 , Silverlight 4, .NET 4, ASP.NET 4, and SQL Server 2008 R2. To register and to learn more about the launch events, the keynotes, the sessions, and the great partner expo go to http://www.devconnections.com/.
Following the launch keynotes, developers attending the conference can look forward to some special technical drilldowns on Silverlight 4. Here are a few highlights of some very hot topics. Microsoft’s Brad Becker will point the way in “Silverlight and the Future of Application Development.” Silverlight is key to designing, developing, and delivering engaging interactive apps for the web, laptop, PC, and mobile devices. It provides both online and offline experiences. Brad covers where Silverlight has been and what opportunities lie just ahead for developers. In “Silverlight 4 and Gaming” Microsoft technical evangelist Mike Downey explains how Silverlight can power exciting online gaming scenarios. Do you want to learn more about Pivot, a new data visualization technology that lets users see thousands of items and explore relationships between them? Microsoft group program manager Jay Girotto will show developers how to use Pivot with Silverlight 4 Deep Zoom technology. Microsoft SharePoint Developer Evangelist Paul Stubbs has a great session on “Developing SharePoint 2010 Web Parts Using Silverlight 4,” where developers will learn how to put these exciting technologies together to deliver rich and interactive SharePoint experiences. This is just a sampling of the sessions at the Visual Studio and Silverlight launch event. To see the complete list of sessions go to http://www.devconnections.com/.